The top middleweight contender is awaiting word on a possible showdown with UFC champion Anderson Silva, who doesn’t seem all that interested in the fight.

But after turning down other matchups, including one with Vitor Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC), Weidman (9-0 MMA, 5-0 UFC) said it’s time for the champ to give him the type of opportunity that Silva (32-4 MMA, 15-0 UFC) also got early in his career.

Weidman is 5-0 since joining the UFC and 9-0 since turning pro in early 2009. Most recently, he made short work of fellow contender Mark Munoz and posted a vicious first-round knockout in the headliner of UFC on FUEL TV 4 this past month.

“Just give me a chance, man,” Weidman said on Tuesday’s “UFC Tonight” on Fuel TV. “Obviously, I believe I’m going to beat you, so it’s a tough one for me to try to tell you to do. But you had one fight when you got the chance, and you were able to make the best of it.

“Just give me the opportunity, and I think it’s going to be a great fight.”

Although Silva’s management has expressed little interest in the title fight, UFC officials were interested in it. Initially, anyway. In fact, that’s a big reason Weidman hasn’t taken another bout.

“From what I’m being told, it’s a fight I think they want to happen, but now it’s just confusing,” he said. “I really don’t know what’s going on. … I’m really just clueless right now.

“I didn’t take a couple fights right after (the Munoz fight). Guys were challenging me like Belfort, and I didn’t take them because the UFC didn’t want me to take them too. They wanted me to wait for the Anderson Silva fight. But now it’s up in the air. I don’t know what’s going on.”

When the champ comes back, though, Weidman thinks he’s a tough challenge for Silva. “The Spider” has shown few weaknesses during his six-year title run, but wrestlers (most notably Chael Sonnen) have had some success. Weidman, a NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at Hofstra University, knows it.

“I think I’m definitely the biggest challenge, and I think he knows and his management knows I’m the biggest challenge, and I would expect him – if he’s the guy I think he is – to take that challenge and try to beat that challenge,” Weidman said.